Lesson 1: Introduction to Inheritance of Traits (Ch. 26)
Summary: Students have just finished the chapter on mitosis and meiosis, and will be starting a new chapter on inheritance of traits. We will start with an introduction into genetics by brainstorming what students know and discuss any misconceptions they may have. Then students will be introduced to dominant and recessive genes by having students give examples based on their own traits and look at where these traits are from. The students will take the list of there own traits and use this as part of an activity that they will do next class.
Objectives: The student will outline the basic concepts of genetics as a group using a concept map. The student will apply their knowledge on dominant and recessive traits on their own set of traits.
Materials:
Bill Nye video
Genetics notes
Just Like Me activity worksheet
Traits worksheet
Instruction: Opening
Warm-up activity:
- As students come into the classroom, there will be a warm-up question on the board. Since this is the start of the unit, I will ask students to think about heredity and ask them to write down some terms that they associate with heredity and how it might be relevant to them.
- Students will also copy down the student objective(s) of the day as well as their homework assignment, while I submit attendance.
- About 5 minutes for this warm-up.
Guiding Questions: - Have you ever thought you might be adopted? Why? - How do you know you're not adopted?
- What makes you, you?
- How are you unique as an individual?
- I will tie in what students have just learned about DNA in the last unit and connect the two units together.
Will you have anything for students to do as you take attendance? If so, you should describe this portion of the opening.
Your questions will be good for connecting students to the topic. What types of answers do you expect? How will you use their answers to frame the lesson. Students will feel more confident if you tell them how their answers relate to the day's topic and what their goals are for the day, i.e. their objectives.
What if they all answer that they have never thought that they were adopted? You should have a backup question or two. My kids were talking about "Ligers" tonight. What could you ask students about Ligers related to heredity?
Activities
1. Brainstorm ideas and make a list/concept map
- Students will have already started a list on their own, but can now contribute their ideas to the whole class. "How can we connect these concepts to our lives?"
- We will watch the Bill Nye video and student will write down some additional information down that they can use to expand on the ideas of heredity.
- As we watch the video, I will point out key points and ask probing questions that should get students thinking about the video and keep them focused on the video.
- I will briefly go over what a concept map and show students an example of the one I have created for this unit if they have not seen one yet.
- They will have about 20 minutes to work in pairs to construct a map using the ideas that we have brainstormed as a class as well as some of the additional ideas they might have.
- I will walk around to make sure that students are on task and working on the concept map.
- Once they have finished, students will then share for a couple minutes each of the map that they have constructed. (about 15 mins total)
- I will check that students have a basic understanding of the concepts and have them keep the maps so they can add and correct them as we go through the unit.
I am assuming that you can access youtube at your school. If not, then you need to find a way to show the video before the class, of course.
For your activities, you need to provide more detail. What will you instruct your students to do and why? For example, in your first activity, will you moderate the brainstorming session and then turn them loose to create a concept map of the class's list of terms? If so, do they know what a concept map is? If not you need to explain this and show an example.
What will you do with the concept maps? Will you go around and look at them? Will you have a few students share portions of their maps? What will you be looking for?
Are they just going to watch the video or are you going to ask questions about it? If you're going to ask questions, what are you going to say before the video to let students know what they should be looking out for. This video is dense and potentially confusing. You should probably create a question sheet that you can use just in case. If left to their own devices, students could come away from the video just associated the word chromosomes with genes, which would be a waste.
The question that I was hoping the video would answer is what is a "gene" within a strand of DNA. Is a "gene" a region that has a specific combination of ATGC's (the 4 building blocks)? If so, then genes are not molecules, right, but molecular regions? Do you think students may find this confusing. Maybe it's just me. The problem, of course, is when students (umm and adults) think they are dumb for not knowing, they pretend to know and then grow to hate the subject.
2. Notes on Genetics (define and explain some of the concepts that students have brainstormed in more details) (15 mins)
Genes
Passing traits
Dominant and recessive genes
Gene Combination (homozygous and heterozygous combos)
Phenotypes and Genotypes
(Will add examples and notes for formal note presentation)
So you've done all those activities and you're going to end with notetaking? What questions do you think your students have? Will you relate your discussion to these questions? Why start with your own series of questions related to the activities that you had them do?
You should have clear examples for each of these terms and tie them in with the video's examples, the data table, etc. How will you do this? You should make some notes in your lesson plan.
Transition: "We are who we are because of the genes we inherited from our parents, but we don't look exactly like our parents. We might have our mom's eyes and our dad's nose, but we don't look like one specific parent, like we have seen with mitosis. Why is that?"
3. Dominant and Recessive Traits: Just Like Me activity
- "What is a trait?" (students will most likely answer somewhere along these lines: something that we can physically see, that's been passed to us from our parents)
- "What are your traits?" (have students look at each other and point out certain traits that they see of their peers)
- Students will receive the activity handout and can work at the lab benches in groups, though the handouts will be completed individually.
Directions:
- Follow the procedures that I have on the second page.
- Fill in the data chart based on your own traits, filling in the genotypes and phenotypes.
- Then you will develop a hypothesis to the problem question.
- Using the gene wheel, determine your "number" and then we will split into our "numbers" and answer the discussion questions.
-Students will have the rest of the period (about 30 mins) to finish the activity.
What are you going to say to transition to this activity from the video? It ties in nicely with the video's discussion of traits, right? This assignment seems to make more sense as something they do at home. What is they don't know their parents' and siblings' eye colors?
If you did complete this data table in class, what will you have them do with it? What questions will you ask?
Closing (last 5 minutes of class)
- Discussion questions from the activity (ties in what students have learned about traits)
- Have students use examples that they have learned from the video and notes to support their reasoning.
Weren't there several "main ideas?" What questions could you ask to determine if students have connected the various concepts in useful ways?
Notes: Students will work complete the chart for homework. They will need to bring this in next class in order to do the class activity.
If the chart is actually homework, and the video is 6 minutes long, are you planning to have them take notes for 50 minutes? If so, then they may not stay with you. This is more reason to extend your discussions of both their concept maps and the video.
Summary:
Students have just finished the chapter on mitosis and meiosis, and will be starting a new chapter on inheritance of traits. We will start with an introduction into genetics by brainstorming what students know and discuss any misconceptions they may have. Then students will be introduced to dominant and recessive genes by having students give examples based on their own traits and look at where these traits are from. The students will take the list of there own traits and use this as part of an activity that they will do next class.
Objectives:
The student will outline the basic concepts of genetics as a group using a concept map.
The student will apply their knowledge on dominant and recessive traits on their own set of traits.
Materials:
Instruction:
Opening
Warm-up activity:
- As students come into the classroom, there will be a warm-up question on the board. Since this is the start of the unit, I will ask students to think about heredity and ask them to write down some terms that they associate with heredity and how it might be relevant to them.
- Students will also copy down the student objective(s) of the day as well as their homework assignment, while I submit attendance.
- About 5 minutes for this warm-up.
Guiding Questions:
- Have you ever thought you might be adopted? Why?
- How do you know you're not adopted?
- What makes you, you?
- How are you unique as an individual?
- I will tie in what students have just learned about DNA in the last unit and connect the two units together.
Will you have anything for students to do as you take attendance? If so, you should describe this portion of the opening.
Your questions will be good for connecting students to the topic. What types of answers do you expect? How will you use their answers to frame the lesson. Students will feel more confident if you
tell them how their answers relate to the day's topic and what their goals are for the day, i.e. their objectives.
What if they all answer that they have never thought that they were adopted? You should have a backup question or two. My kids were talking about "Ligers" tonight. What could you ask students about Ligers related to heredity?
Activities
1. Brainstorm ideas and make a list/concept map
- What do you know about genetics?
- Watch Bill Nye video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPk_V1KkMuU&feature=related
- Students will have already started a list on their own, but can now contribute their ideas to the whole class. "How can we connect these concepts to our lives?"- We will watch the Bill Nye video and student will write down some additional information down that they can use to expand on the ideas of heredity.
- As we watch the video, I will point out key points and ask probing questions that should get students thinking about the video and keep them focused on the video.
- I will briefly go over what a concept map and show students an example of the one I have created for this unit if they have not seen one yet.
- They will have about 20 minutes to work in pairs to construct a map using the ideas that we have brainstormed as a class as well as some of the additional ideas they might have.
- I will walk around to make sure that students are on task and working on the concept map.
- Once they have finished, students will then share for a couple minutes each of the map that they have constructed. (about 15 mins total)
- I will check that students have a basic understanding of the concepts and have them keep the maps so they can add and correct them as we go through the unit.
I am assuming that you can access youtube at your school. If not, then you need to find a way to show the video before the class, of course.
For your activities, you need to provide more detail. What will you instruct your students to do and why? For example, in your first activity, will you moderate the brainstorming session and then turn them loose to create a concept map of the class's list of terms? If so, do they know what a concept map is? If not you need to explain this and show an example.
What will you do with the concept maps? Will you go around and look at them? Will you have a few students share portions of their maps? What will you be looking for?
Are they just going to watch the video or are you going to ask questions about it? If you're going to ask questions, what are you going to say before the video to let students know what they should be looking out for. This video is dense and potentially confusing. You should probably create a question sheet that you can use just in case. If left to their own devices, students could come away from the video just associated the word chromosomes with genes, which would be a waste.
The question that I was hoping the video would answer is what is a "gene" within a strand of DNA. Is a "gene" a region that has a specific combination of ATGC's (the 4 building blocks)? If so, then genes are not molecules, right, but molecular regions? Do you think students may find this confusing. Maybe it's just me. The problem, of course, is when students (umm and adults) think they are dumb for not knowing, they pretend to know and then grow to hate the subject.
2. Notes on Genetics (define and explain some of the concepts that students have brainstormed in more details) (15 mins)
(Will add examples and notes for formal note presentation)
So you've done all those activities and you're going to end with notetaking? What questions do you think your students have? Will you relate your discussion to these questions? Why start with your own series of questions related to the activities that you had them do?
You should have clear examples for each of these terms and tie them in with the video's examples, the data table, etc. How will you do this? You should make some notes in your lesson plan.
Transition: "We are who we are because of the genes we inherited from our parents, but we don't look exactly like our parents. We might have our mom's eyes and our dad's nose, but we don't look like one specific parent, like we have seen with mitosis. Why is that?"
3. Dominant and Recessive Traits: Just Like Me activity
- "What is a trait?" (students will most likely answer somewhere along these lines: something that we can physically see, that's been passed to us from our parents)
- "What are your traits?" (have students look at each other and point out certain traits that they see of their peers)
- Students will receive the activity handout and can work at the lab benches in groups, though the handouts will be completed individually.
Directions:
- Follow the procedures that I have on the second page.
- Fill in the data chart based on your own traits, filling in the genotypes and phenotypes.
- Then you will develop a hypothesis to the problem question.
- Using the gene wheel, determine your "number" and then we will split into our "numbers" and answer the discussion questions.
-Students will have the rest of the period (about 30 mins) to finish the activity.
What are you going to say to transition to this activity from the video? It ties in nicely with the video's discussion of traits, right? This assignment seems to make more sense as something they do at home. What is they don't know their parents' and siblings' eye colors?
If you did complete this data table in class, what will you have them do with it? What questions will you ask?
Closing (last 5 minutes of class)
- Discussion questions from the activity (ties in what students have learned about traits)
- Have students use examples that they have learned from the video and notes to support their reasoning.
Weren't there several "main ideas?" What questions could you ask to determine if students have connected the various concepts in useful ways?
Notes:
Students will work complete the chart for homework. They will need to bring this in next class in order to do the class activity.
If the chart is actually homework, and the video is 6 minutes long, are you planning to have them take notes for 50 minutes? If so, then they may not stay with you. This is more reason to extend your discussions of both their concept maps and the video.